Blog‎ > ‎

CCIE DC UCS Addressing Recommendations

posted Jun 24, 2014, 10:09 PM by Rick McGee   [ updated Jun 25, 2014, 11:37 AM ]
Servers UUID Addresses
        Don't changed the PREFIX
        Allocate 515 suffixes to the default pool

LAN and SAN 
    Use Pools when ever possible 
    UCS does allow you the option of using the actual hardware-derived addresses
        This is not recommended, and can lock you into the blade you are currently running the OS
        on, and requires intervention for upgrades and moves, add's, and changes.

    Pools are required for Palo mezzanine cards (N81KR,VIC1240, and VIC1280)
    
    Use pool that are multiple of 16, and less then 128 addresses each

MAC Addresses
    Format is a 3 byte OUI, 3 byte Ext ID
        00:25:B5: XX:XX:XX

    Good practice is to use an Ext ID scheme in different pools that makes it easy to identify
    UCS Domain/Blade/OS-Type
        XX:YZ:ZZ
        XX = UCS Domain (up to 255 domains 0 with 40,800 blades)
        Y= is OS type, y is pool #
            1= ESXi
            2=HyperV
            3=Win2k8 bare
            4=Win2k12 bare
            etc.....
        Z:ZZ= leave open for dynamo population 

SAN nWWN/WWNN Addresses 
    One nWWN per blade 
    Don't overlap nWWN's and pWWN's 
        You can do this but becomes impossible to trouble shoot
     Idea is to use "F" or "FF" in Section 2 of address

WWN Addressing 4 Sections

    WX:XX:YY:YY:YY:ZZ:ZZ:ZZ

        W= Section 1
            Either is a 1,2, or a 5
            1 is older "standard" format 
            2 is newer "extended' format (this is what you want to use)
            5 is "registered' format (typically found in disk array enclosures)

       X:XX= Section 2 
            Cisco recommends using this, this is used to denote is this is a nWWN  or a 
            pWWN and which Fabric the pWWn is on 
            0:FF= nWWN
            0:A1= pWWN on Fabric A, VSAN 1
            0:B1= pWWN on Fabric B, VSAN 1
    
    YY:YY:YY= Section 3= OUI DON"T CHNAGE"

    ZZ:ZZ:ZZ= Section 4, Exit ID 
        Configure this the same as you would for the MAC addresses 

SAN pWWN/WWPN
    MAC addressing and nWWN/pWWN addressing are similar in the back-half of the 
    structure.

    3 byte OUI, 3 Byte Ext ID
    Major difference is that pWWN/nWWN add on a 2 byte prefix

Boot-From-SAN
    Disable quiet boot in BIOS

    Will show pWWN what we are booting form 

    Boot order should always have SAN ordered first 
        No PXE or CDROM before vHBA1

    For Win2k8 on bare metal 
        No secondary vHBA/Target (add after installation is complete) and no local disks at 
        all in boot order 
        
        Target LUN/Volume must already have GPT (GUI Partition Table) 

ESXi vNIC's 
    Create 8 vNIC's 
        2 for vmkernel using Active/Active load balancing vswich
        No fabric failover in UCS, A/A LB takes care of that
        
        2 for vMotion using Active/Passive load balancing
            Used by vswitch1, no Fabric Failover in UCS
                Remember that you would want this on the same VLAN/Subnet vMotion is 
                not supported over Layer3 network 
            Prefernce would use one vNIC with Failover checked

        2 vNIC's for VM's 
            Possibly teamed using Active/Active, possibly use NIC's completely separate
            from one another (separate switches of DVS in ESXi)

    2 vNIC's for future use
            You'll never know when you might need them
        
    Some of this may changed if you use the Nexus 1000v 
            You will want to use 2 vNIC's for VM's in vPC-HM using MAC Pinning
        
    Win2k8 on bare metal 
        1 vNIC using UCS Fabric Failover 
        2 vNIC's if wish ito have disjointed L2 LAN's for backup or such..

    Native VLAN (UCS manger any traffic without a 801.Q herder goes into native VLAN)
        To check, or not to check?
            Win2k8 on bare metal, want to check Native VLAN

            ESXi, won't check unless using VLAN0-untagged, otherwise ESXi expects 
            dot1q tagged frames 
                VLAN0 for it's management vlan, you can change to another VLAN
Comments